Good right here
by naybaybay
Summary: ANOTHER Morning after always / After the storm fic. ONESHOT.


Kate awoke and the instant harshness of the sun seeping through Rick Castle's bedroom window made here eyes water and her head ache. She turned in the sheets just to get away from it and found herself staring into an even brighter glow.

The glow of his eyes.

Kate inhaled deeply, choosing the appropriate words to use, but before she could come to a decision, Castle intervened.

"You taste like cherries", he told her with that same uncharacteristically soft voice.

Kate's top lip turned upward slightly, this would now be significantly less awkward.

This was her domain, returning his bantering. He was still just Castle after all.

"Good morning to you too", she gurgled out, her voice weakened from lack of use... or perhaps too much use.

"I had a dream about you", he sighed, shuffling slightly closer to her, interlacing his long legs with hers that were just as long.

Kate's smile grew. "'S that so?"

"Mhm", Rick placed his elbow on her pillow, laying his head in his hand, holding himself just above her. "I dreamt that you came to my door, soaking wet, there was... I don't know, some kind of apology and then you just proceeded to...devour me. Actually, you may have in fact devoured me prior to the apology... I don't know, my dreams are usually pretty hazy."

Kate hummed lowly as she traced the lines of his pectorals with her index finger. "You know, that's really weird, I had the same dream."

"You did?"

"Yeah, except in my version, I can only seem to recall _you _devouring _me_."

Castle lips turned upwards, his eyes twitching in his attempt to subdue a smirk. "Funny how selective memory works, isn't it?"

Kate bit her lip. "You know what my favorite part of the dream is?"

Castle shook his head, his eyes full of glitter.

Kate moved into him so that there two bodies were one. "This part right now."

Castle's cheekbones lifted as he smiled down at her. "I like that bit too."

And then his lips were on hers again. Kate allowed the realization that she was in Rick Castle's bedroom, in his bed, bare against his equally naked body, kissing him languidly, as if time had ceased to exist.

Kate inhaled shakily, her body stiffening as he trailed open mouthed kisses down her arms. When he transferred to her sternum, she let out a huff of breath. "Castle", she whimpered.

The only reply he gave was to disappear completely under the sheet, and let his touches speak for him.

As deliciously captivating as they were, Kate was glad for once that he wasn't using words.

He sucked on the inside of her thigh and Kate moaned once. "Rick."

She heard his own moan and then suddenly, she was hit with the shock of the morning cold as he flung the blanket off both himself and her.

"Wh-what are you doing?" She cried in frustration and confusion.

"Jesus Kate, did I do this?" He asked her, a deep concern written on his face.

"What?" She bit.

He motioned with his eyes, scanning all over her body. Kate sat so as to have a look at what was obviously upsetting him.

The bruises.

Memories of the fight on the rooftop came flooding back to her and she winced.

She closed her eyes. "No... no Castle, you didn't do this", she told him apologetically.

She grit her teeth. "Come, come lie down", she pulled him down beside her.

The feeling of him in her arms made her feel stronger, but it also scared her. "I-I um. Maddox and I fought, and uh... he won. He... almost won. His prize would have been me, dead on the pavement below his apartment building. And he almost got it, but Ryan came just in time, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up... and you know what I thought when he called my name, Castle?"

Castle swallowed, his face painted in regret.

"I thought it was you...calling my name... I mean, it actually didn't even occur to me that you would not be there", Kate let out a short breath. "Because you've always been there."

"I _should_ have been there", Castle's voice rattled with despair, but Kate took his face in her hands and shook her head at him. "Everything turned out the way it should have. I'm here with you, everything's good", she gave him a half smile.

He sighed hard. "You need to go to the ER", he told her strictly.

Kate made a noise of contempt as she rolled over on his bed and buried her face in his pillow.

"My god, you're back's even worse", he gasped.

"Well quit looking at it, and it will go away", her muffled voice said as she spoke into the pillow

He eyed her up, his mouth twisted in bitter amusement. "You have a strange logic, Detective Beckett...You don't have to go to work this morning, do you?" He asked her, making a face as the dark black bruises stared him in the eye.

Then they were gone from view, as Kate rolled over onto them. Lying stomach up, her naked body greeting him. His eyes fixed instantly to her breasts.

"Castle", she said lightly, to divert his attention to a different part of her anatomy.

"Hmm?" He said, his eyes flicking instantly to hers.

She blinked twice, her face was calm and relaxed. She held less tension in it than she had done in years. "I'm no longer a cop. I resigned."

"Wha- when?" Castle breathed.

"Yesterday, after the roof incident. Gates put us on suspension, told Esposito and I to hand over our badges and when I put mine down on her desk I... told her she could keep it", Kate said as if it were no big deal.

She felt Castle's hand grip her wrist. "I-I don't know what to say about this... or if I even have the right to say anything at all", he finished quietly.

Kate's mouth opened slightly in shock. "Of course you have a right to say something... you're my partner."

"Well not anymore. If you're out, then I'm most definitely out", Castle said, sounding somewhere between indignant and proud.

Kate turned her wrist away from his grasp and latched onto his hand. "You're still my partner Rick."

His body that had been rigid in surprise and defiance, deflated somewhat as he sunk into his bed and ran a feathery hand up his lover's arm. "Are you sure this is want you want?"

She grinned. Oh yeah, she definitely knew how to respond to that.

"You've got a very short memory Mr. Castle. Don't you remember? I just want you."

He sighed into her shoulder, placing a wet kiss on it. He looked into her eyes with a undisguised pout. "I still think you should go to the hospital."

Kate shook her head, biting her lip with a slightly cocky grin. "I'm good right here",

Castle's tilted his head toward her, a grin on his own face. "I know you're good. I have first hand knowledge of that fact."

"Mm, and you are very knowledgeable with that hand."

Castle's eyes widened. "I'm going to run a bath for you... wash out all the dirtiness from your mind."

He extracted himself from her and she made a strangled noise of dissatisfaction.

She is cold alone in his gigantic bed.

"Humph... will you at least join me?" She asked, in a shy but sure kind of way.

"Do you really think that will help?" He teased her.

"It'll help... you help", she told him with sincerity enough in his voice that it rocked the blood in his veins.

His eyes gleam, connecting with hers across his bedroom.

Her lip crept upward on her mouth. "Even when you're no help at all."

He narrowed his eyes at her, in good humor. "I'm always helpful", he turned his nose up and waltzed into his en suite.

Kate grinned as his bare backside went out of view and she heard the sound of running taps.

She lay back in his bed, just breathing. So glad to be breathing. So thankful to be here. So grateful for him.

"Alright, Miss Beckett, time to ablutionize yourself."

"That's not a word - Castle! What are you doing? I have legs."

Rick had climbed into bed beside her on his knees and scooped her into his arms. He carried her toward the direction of his bathroom.

"Yes, I'm very aware", he told her promiscuously.

She gaped, short of a response. He did put her down eventually, standing her in his tub. "How's the temperature?"

"Mm, good", she replied, closing her eyes for a moment.

Her arm was still draped around his shoulder even though she was standing. "Can you let go?" He asked her reluctantly, as he didn't really want her to withdraw her arm from him, but she needed to sit in the warm bath he'd just drawn for her.

"Mhm", she said, but her voice and her knees both shook as she said it. She removed her arm and winced as a searing pain shot from her foot to her hip.

"Seriously? How bad does this have to be for you to go to the hospital?" Rick exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her again, holding her steady.

"I don't want to go to the hospital, they can't do anything for me that you or I can't do ourselves."

"Right, well if you're assigning me as your doctor, then my first act of administration is to request you lie back in the water and give those bruises a nice long soak."

"And will you be administering the remedies required, Doctor Castle?" Kate asked him, trying to keep herself humored as he pulled her gently down into the bathtub and sat her between his legs.

"Lie back", he instructed her, and she did, however obvious her discomfort was.

"I do actually own a white coat", he told her offhandedly as her twisted around to find a soft sponge and some soap.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Kate rolled her eyes.

"I could put it on for you if you like", he whispered into her ear as he wrapped his long arm around her shoulder and ran the soft sponge along her nearly lacerated throat, letting the water trickle down her breasts.

"I dunno, I kind of think this is a good look for you", Kate hissed as he swiped against a particularly painful wound.

"Sorry", he apologized, wincing along with her. "Tell me where it hurts the most."

"Everywhere?" She admitted sheepishly.

"Including earlobes, fingernails, hair?" Rick asked her, in mockingly professional voice as he continued to lather her torso and breasts with the soapy sponge.

"You know there is one place in particular that's really irking me, my ass. But I think that's more to do with my boyfriend being such a pain in it."

Rick paused his ministrations and looked at her with his mouth agape. He looked offended, and she thought he was about to say something along the lines of "That's not very nice", though of course, something far wittier, but all that came out of his mouth was. "Boyfriend?" Followed by a look of not very well reserved smugness.

She made a noise of complaint. "Rick, the... bruises", she dragged his hand back to her breasts where he'd been stroking soft circles with the sponge.

"Oh right... the bruises", he replied with a lilt of comedy in his voice.

She settled completely into him, relishing in the feeling of his hands on her. Being touched this way, being loved this way was something that she was not accustomed to.

She complained again when he told her to sit up, though her complaints ceased when he began to stroke her back lightly, the warm water dripping off the sponge soothing her abrasions.

Rick cleared his throat. "So, about this boyfriend of yours."

"Wha'bout'im?" Kate slurred as he created heaven on her spine.

"What's he like?"

"I'm sorry I can't really think so well right now when your hands are doing... what they're doing", she purred.

Castle withdrew his hands from her back and she splashed him. "You're a horrible doctor, I'm suing this practice."

"I just need you to answer my question. It really is imperative for your recovery, Miss Beckett."

Kate grit her teeth together. "Alright, I'll answer, just keep rubbing my back."

He paused for effect and then began working on her lower back "So?" He prodded.

"He's demanding."

"Hmm", he withdrew his hand and she hissed at the cold.

"I'm sorry, wrong adjective, I meant... dashing."

He made another small noise and continued stroking soft circles on her back. "What else?"

Kate moaned at his touch as he hit a particularly sensitive spot, the pressure on it was bliss. "He's shockingly intelligent, sexy as all hell, caring to a fault and um, uh..."

"Ruggedly ha-" He went to remind her.

"Ruggedly handsome", Kate nodded. "Actually I was going to say devastatingly handsome but whatever."

"So is it serious?"

"Is what serious?"

"Whatever is... going on between the two of you", Rick murmured, not wanting to make any presumptions just yet by calling it a "relationship".

"Oh", her body went slightly rigid once more, her heart thumbing wildly against her chest. "Well our relationship is pretty new."

"How long have you been...?"

"About twelve hours", Kate bit her lip, amused.

"Hmm, well where do you see it going? Or rather, where would you like it to go?" Rick held his breath, awaiting her response.

"Well... I've always pictured my perfect man being someone who would sit with me in a bathtub and wash my bruises if someone beat me up."

"Wouldn't going out and killing the bastard who beat you up be a better idea?" Castle suggested.

"Yeah, except I don't think my boyfriend could take him."

Rick pursed his lips, not sure whether to take that as an insult or not. But he knew that if Kate could end up like this after an encounter with the guy, then he would have ended up worse.

"So what about you? Are you with anyone?"

"Yes, I am. She's stubborn, proud, maddening... and those are some of her best attributes."

She elbowed him, causing the water to splash around them again. "Well, it sounds like you have high hopes for _that_ relationship", she bowed her head.

"Well, let's just say, I hope to have her in my life, even when her whole body looks like this", he held up Kate's now wrinkled hand.

Kate smiled broadly. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it radiating off of her.

"Come on, that's enough ablutionizing for you", he said and she shook her head at his absurd linguistic inventions.

He stood her up slowly and her bones creaked. She felt so heavy and she leaned into him as he reached in front of them to retrieve a towel off his towel rack. He draped it over her and wrapped his arms around her, his hug warmer than the bath water had been, even when he'd first run it.

"One more thing I forgot to mention about my girlfriend", she heard him say behind her, waking her from the sleep she was about to fall into in the confines of his arms.

"Hmm?" She sighed, tiredly.

"There are moments when I really want to leave her."

Kate frowned, her eyes dipping despondently.

"Just so that I might have the great fortune of missing her."

Kate's head lifted up. She turned in his arms, bringing her face to meet his. His hands sure and strong on her elbows.

"And then to come back loving her even more", he whispered, his breath caressing her cheek.

She swallowed, her chest heaving with her concentrated breathing. His fingers traced a line up her swollen arms, coming to rest on her blackened shoulder.

If it hurt her, she didn't show it. She was focused only on receiving his kiss, and returning it with a corresponding ferocity.

Their mouths unhinged but their faces remained touching, their foreheads and noses grazing against one another's, just as they had done when she'd first entered the loft the previous night.

"There's something I forgot to say about my boyfriend too. I'm not sure if he knows this but... I'm kinda crazy about him", Kate bit her lip, looking directly into his eyes.

His face was a picture of adoration. "He knows", he assured her.

She smiled at him delightedly.

"Come on", he prompted her, snaking his arm around her waist and aiding her hobbling frame back to his bed where he lay her down and tucked her in underneath the sheets.

When he pulled the blanket over her, he could hear her stomach rumble. "Kate?" He asked her with a censurable tone.

"Mm?" She already had her eyes closed.

"When's the last time you ate?"

Kate's brow furrowed and she opened one eye, her lips twisting with guilt. "I can't um... I don't know."

Rick shook his head at her. ""Maddening" would be a complimentary adjective here."

Kate opened both eyes, watching him with a coy grin.

"I'll go make us something to eat", he said, kissing her on her still damp forehead.

"You want some help?" She mumbled, her eyes flitting closed again.

He gave her a wry smile. "Yeah, right... Besides, you've got to give me a chance to miss you, remember?"

Kate was already snoring but she still had a smile on her face.

When he came back, he'd love her even more, and he'd tell her.

She might even tell him the same.

...


End file.
